With the first general meeting of members and a scribble from the notary, she was officially born on Thursday: the Circular Groningen association. All kinds of companies hope to make progress with reuse and working more sustainably.
Groningen has copied the trick from its Western neighbour. 25 companies set up Circular Friesland there in 2016; the association now has 140 members. The Groningen version will start with about 30 members. “And a few dozen more companies have promised to participate,” says quartermaster Bart Volkers.
Knowledge institutions such as the RUG and Hanze University of Applied Sciences have joined, as well as retail, waste companies, governments and housing corporations. Most of them are already working in a circular way: using fewer new raw materials, reusing more and throwing away less (see box). But so far they’ve largely done it for themselves.
Euphoric mood
Omrin, the Rabobank, Groningen Seaports and the municipality of Groningen started calling around in December to see if there was any interest in an association. ,,One of the customers to whom I explained on the phone what the intention was, said halfway through my story: ‘Hey, finally, of course we are participating”, says Heleen van Wijk of Groningen Seaports. That’s how it fared more people on the call team. “At a certain point the mood became quite euphoric. What is going on here, we thought, everyone really wants to join us.”
In the circular economy, waste (almost) does not exist
You make products from raw materials, and when those products are used up or broken, they become waste. That, in a nutshell, is how we are traditionally used to the economy working. But such a linear system cannot be sustained in the long term: there is an excess of waste and a shortage of raw materials.
That is why companies and governments are increasingly working towards a circular economy, in which old and discarded materials become raw materials for new products. In the long term, the aim is not to have to throw anything away. The Dutch government has set 2050 as a target year to be fully circular.
Is that going to work? Gerrit Jan Georg of Indaver does not dare to say for sure. “If I clean a material for reuse, the dirt has not disappeared, it has only been made more concentrated. So whether we will ever really achieve 100 percent circularity, I don’t know.”
In any case, according to quartermaster Bart Volkers of Circulair Groningen, it is important to keep the goal in mind. You can work from that starting point. That’s what we want to do.”
The members of the brand new association appear to be in need of sharing knowledge and experiences. “We have been trying for quite some time to get as much as possible out of the waste chain, and that is difficult,” says Gerrit Jan Georg, the director of the Groningen branch of waste processor Indaver. “Everyone builds their own ideas and knowledge and I think you should share it as much as possible. Promoting, too, that people need not be afraid of a recycled product.”
‘I don’t know what I don’t know’
Maripaan, with 17 Jumbo supermarkets and four restaurants in Groningen, is also participating. “I don’t know what I don’t know,” says Maripaan founder Paul Papo. “I hope to gain knowledge that I do not have myself. I normally order new lockers for a new store. But if I use them and can get them as good as new, then of course I will. ”
For that he would just like to join his new club members of Again! in Buitenpost, a social enterprise that makes office furniture from old products and waste streams. Again! is also affiliated with Circular Friesland, says director Kees Noordmans. “That is why we know what it produces: a snowball effect. People find each other and set up all kinds of great initiatives together. For example, entire business parks are being renovated in a circular manner.”
The members of Circular Groningen will meet a number of times a year at general meetings. The association will offer knowledge programs and support in the field of regulations, subsidies and permits. She also expects something from the members, says quartermaster Volkers: “Investing in circularity. If someone doesn’t do anything with it, we should be able to have a critical conversation about it.”